Post-80s village doctor Chen Weilin: Working for the health and happiness of his fellow villagers
Fuzhou, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- "Xiao Chen! Quick! Come see what's wrong with my son!" At around 7 p.m. on Aug. 22 this year, Chen Longyun, a villager from Houxi Village in Zhangpu County, rushed into the village clinic carrying his 6-year-old son.
Fever, lethargy, frequent vomiting... A series of symptoms put village doctor Chen Weilin on alert. "Did he eat something?" Learning that the child had picked and eaten several mushrooms that afternoon, Chen Weilin contacted a vehicle to take the child to hospital while giving the child emergency treatment.
That evening, a total of six children in the village were rushed to hospital for treatment after accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms. Fortunately, because they were sent to hospital in time, all the children pulled through.
Houxi Village, where Chen Weilin works, is under Huxi She Ethnic Township in Zhangpu County, Fujian Province, and more than one-third of the township's population is She ethnic. Because the area is mountainous and transportation is inconvenient, more and more young people in the village choose to leave to work elsewhere, leaving behind mostly empty-nest elderly people and left-behind children. Chen Weilin, a post-80s village doctor, has become the "family doctor" and even "relative" of many left-behind villagers.
Chen Weilin's father, Chen Qihui, stayed at the Huxi She Ethnic Township Health Center as a barefoot doctor ever since graduating from health school in 1968. As a child, Chen Weilin loved staying by his father's side and watching him consult patients and take their pulses. Influenced by what he saw and heard, by age six he could recite backwards and forwards the "Tangtou Gejue," which contains more than 300 commonly used traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. In 1998, after graduating from health school, Chen Weilin returned to Houxi Village and took over the baton of village doctor from his father.
An elderly villager in Nanshan Natural Village developed diabetic foot, and Chen Weilin made two or three round trips every day to clean the wound, persisting in this for seven years. In 2006, typhoon-season floods destroyed a bridge, so Chen Weilin had to wade across the stream every day. Sometimes the stream was so swift that he had to take a detour of more than 7 km along mountain roads.
"Do not give up on a single patient; that is a doctor's duty." His father's words measured every one of Chen Weilin's house calls like a ruler. When young people in the village all wanted to go out to seek opportunities, Chen Qihui firmly kept his son there: "The mountain area lacks doctors and medicines. Someone has to treat the villagers!"
After walking several li of mountain roads, the reporter followed Chen Weilin to the home of 86-year-old Lan Meiniang. By the dim light, the reporter saw the elderly woman lying in bed in the old earthen house, wheezing heavily. Chen Weilin tidied the room a little, then began carefully auscultating her and taking her pulse.
"He is closer to me than my own son." Lan Meiniang struggled to sit up and told the reporter, "Every time he comes, he brings some nutritional supplements and refuses to take money."
There are more than 300 patients with health records like Lan Meiniang in Houxi Village. "Each person needs three home visits for physical examinations every year, which adds up to more than 1,200 trips a year. There are also once-a-year home examinations for people over 65. All of this needs to be done by Weilin alone," said Lan Wentai, head of Huxi Health Center.
Just this year, Chen Weilin gave up the recruitment examination for the special general practice post at the township health center. If he had passed the exam, he would have had a permanent staff position and a government subsidy of 30,000 yuan per year. Chen Weilin said, "I also thought about working in the township, but what would the old and young in the village do if they get a headache or fever?"
Thirty-seven blood donation certificates and a total blood donation volume of 115,200 ml, enough to fill the bodies of 24 strong adults. In Zhangzhou city, Chen Weilin is also a somewhat famous "blood hero." At the end of 2006, Chen Weilin also became a volunteer donor of hematopoietic stem cells. In just ten years, Chen Weilin donated apheresis platelets 80 times.
In Chen Weilin's eyes, the more than 3,000 villagers are "family." Over 18 years of practicing medicine, he has made a cumulative total of 24,820 house calls, including diagnosing or referring 612 patients with critical or severe conditions, providing free physical examinations for elderly people 5,100 times, and providing humanistic care for 340 dying elderly people.
"Having dealt with patients all year round, I cherish even more the happiness of being a healthy person. Only by helping my fellow villagers relieve their pain does personal happiness become more meaningful." Before he could finish speaking, Chen Weilin received another emergency call. Shouldering his medicine box and getting on his somewhat worn motorcycle, "family doctor" Chen Weilin set off once again.